Page 49 of Stranded with His Runaway Bride

She wanted to take Leo’s hand but he was on the opposite side of the cabin. Even if she could, she doubted he’d notice. His whole attention was focused on the view below.

Beneath them Grimentz lay in ruins.

Fields had become lakes, barns were flattened, mighty trees upended like saplings. In the village streets, cars bobbed like children’s toys in the angry, roiling water filled with all the debris swept up in the deluge. Power lines down, bridges nothing more than archless stumps, stranded in the swollen rivers.

There was damage everywhere, even the road from the city she and Leo had both taken to the chateau just forty-eight hours ago was washed away in three places.

The devastated landscape echoed the financial catastrophe awaiting her when she returned home, but she wouldn’t think of that right now. Her first priority was to help those in need in Grimentz.

They landed on the outskirts of a small town, where Grimentz had been hit the hardest. West of the capital and directly in the path of the torrents of water funnelling down the once picturesque valley. It was unrecognisable from the place it had been.

The council offices had been spared and turned into a makeshift refuge for bewildered families to gather, to get help, to enquire for loved ones.

When they saw Leo, his people fell on him, thanking the fates that he’d been spared.

They all wanted to touch him, as if to check he was real. They shook his hand, patted his back. An elderly matriarch struggled up from her seat, placing a hand to his jaw and kissing him on the cheek.

He bore it all, though Violetta could see how it moved him. He spoke with each of them, a smile for some, a handshake for others, crouched on his haunches to talk gently to a tiny girl clutching a mud-splattered teddy.

Here was another Leo. Not stern and unapproachable, but at ease amongst his people and well beloved by them in return, she realised as she watched the little girl step into his arms for a hug.

Violetta fought back a tear.

For her there were odd looks, glances at her ringless left hand, bemusement as to why she was there at all with their prince after their botched marriage attempt. Not recrimination exactly, for who would dare with their prince standing by?

Something bumped into her back, a woman entering the building struggling with boxes piled with blankets and clothes.

Her eyes went wide when she saw who she’d walked into.

‘I’d curtsy, Your Highness, but as you can see...’ She adjusted her grip on the boxes. ‘I’d struggle with this lot.’

‘Let me help you.’ Violetta took one off the pile. ‘Where is this going?’ The woman tipped her chin towards to the side of the hall where trestle tables had been set up and volunteers were busy sorting through piles of donated clothing and bedding.

Violetta dumped her box with the stack waiting to be sorted, then rolled back her sleeves.

‘What can I do?’ she asked the team working round the tables.

For a moment she thought her offer was going to be refused. All the volunteers just stared at her. Some even looked openly suspicious and she couldn’t really blame them. Not only was she a reviled Della Torre but the second one to very publicly jilt their prince.

The woman who’d delivered the boxes saved her, pointed at the line of four tables in turn. ‘Children’s clothes. Women’s. Men’s. Bedding and towels go on the last one.’

Smiling at her fellow volunteers, two of whom at least now smiled back, Violetta picked up the first box of donations and, with Luisa at her side, started sorting.

Leo had deliberately sat on the opposite side of the cabin so he couldn’t reach for her, because he’d known how much he’d want to.

As the horrors had been revealed below he’d badly wanted to curl his fingers through hers and take strength from the warmth of her slender fingers in his.

Instead, Leo stood alone. That was what a leader did. Showed no weakness, no vulnerability and you certainly didn’t hold a woman’s hand for comfort.

So he’d stayed on the other side of the cabin so he wouldn’t indulge his yearning, reveal hisweakness, and reach for her.

She’d made no fuss when the news of her country’s financial ruin had been revealed. She’d listened and then turned all her attentions to helping Grimentz, whose need right then was greater. Then she’d sat, drawn but composed, as she’d stared down on what the forces of nature had wreaked on his country. When his people had eyed her with suspicion at the relief centre, she hadn’t faltered, she’d simply rolled up her sleeves and started helping.

His brave girl.

She’d grown in stature before him, bearing little similarity to the girl who’d fled their wedding.

On the other side of the room now he could see she’d started directing the deliveries of new donations. They were coming in thick and fast and their current system for processing was close to being overwhelmed. She’d seen that, stepped in and reorganised it. His people didn’t appear to mind, just hurrying to do as she asked.

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